Exploding battery?

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sean mclennan

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Exploding battery?

PostFri Mar 21, 2014 2:36 pm

Anyone else see this? watching the smoke pour out of the top gave me chills. I can't imagine witnessing this.

Must be a defective battery no?

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David Dearing

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Re: Exploding battery?

PostFri Mar 21, 2014 3:47 pm

Yikes!

I'm confused- it says external battery "exploded", but the smoke in the video was coming from the camera. Was it the camera's internal battery or an external one?

Sorry about the fiasco! :(
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Dustin Boswell

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Re: Exploding battery?

PostFri Mar 21, 2014 4:13 pm

Holy Crap,

I have heard of battery explosions as a result of a short circuit but that's pretty extreme. I have to wonder which battery he was using though - if it was a chinese-offbrand Vmount I wouldn't be surprised.
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Kevin DeOliveira

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Re: Exploding battery?

PostFri Mar 21, 2014 4:15 pm

Never heard of anything like that with a black magic, holy cow!
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sean mclennan

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Re: Exploding battery?

PostFri Mar 21, 2014 4:16 pm

The article says external battery, but the video quite clearly says it's the internal one....

I know there were some people who had issues with the power jack not working...so I guess it's possible for a short due to bad wiring.

It's the fact that this happened after 6 months of no issues that freaks me out!
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David Corigliano

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Re: Exploding battery?

PostFri Mar 21, 2014 6:23 pm

Guys, this camera has been out for close to two years with no record of anything like this ever happening before. I'm sure BMD is working with this guy to replace/fix the cam given the profile his video has now, I don't worry about this happening to my camera, and I don't think you should either.
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AdrianSierkowski

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Re: Exploding battery?

PostFri Mar 21, 2014 6:28 pm

Any and every LiOn battery can explode like this. It happens to laptops, cell phones, Teslas, and 777s. It's not extremely common, but it's also not extremely uncommon. Sure it sucks, but it's not like suddenly all the BMcameras will start doing this.
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David Dearing

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Re: Exploding battery?

PostFri Mar 21, 2014 6:44 pm

If you power jack has a short in it, it could make both the external and internal battery explode. Actually, if there's a short in any part of the circuit both batteries could explode. I wonder if this was a brand new camera.
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Shawn Miller

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Re: Exploding battery?

PostFri Mar 21, 2014 7:04 pm

AdrianSierkowski wrote:Any and every LiOn battery can explode like this. It happens to laptops, cell phones, Teslas, and 777s. It's not extremely common, but it's also not extremely uncommon. Sure it sucks, but it's not like suddenly all the BMcameras will start doing this.


Yup, it's happened in Dell laptops, Apple laptops, Samsung smartphones, IPhones and as you point out, The Boeing 777. It's a rare but scary event... what I want to know is, what is BMD's policy on this issue; full replacement under warranty, full replacement for the life of the unit, no replacement under any circumstances... what?

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Theodore Prentice

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Re: Exploding battery?

PostFri Mar 21, 2014 7:12 pm

Shawn Miller wrote:
AdrianSierkowski wrote:Any and every LiOn battery can explode like this. It happens to laptops, cell phones, Teslas, and 777s. It's not extremely common, but it's also not extremely uncommon. Sure it sucks, but it's not like suddenly all the BMcameras will start doing this.


... what I want to know is, what is BMD's policy on this issue;

Shawn


fixed in a future firmware update :idea:
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Andrew Lucas

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Re: Exploding battery?

PostFri Mar 21, 2014 7:15 pm

Recently I have noticed that when my Viewfactor V-Mount Hinge plate is plugged into the BMCC, that the battery icon will fluctuate from the Charging Icon to 75%. Just wondering if a situation such as that (constant charge, no charge, charge, no charge repeatedly) could cause the LiOn to react the way it did in this video.
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Shawn Miller

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Re: Exploding battery?

PostFri Mar 21, 2014 7:21 pm

Theodore Prentice wrote:
Shawn Miller wrote:
AdrianSierkowski wrote:Any and every LiOn battery can explode like this. It happens to laptops, cell phones, Teslas, and 777s. It's not extremely common, but it's also not extremely uncommon. Sure it sucks, but it's not like suddenly all the BMcameras will start doing this.


... what I want to know is, what is BMD's policy on this issue;

Shawn


fixed in a future firmware update :idea:


ACK!! :-)

Shawn
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Kevin DeOliveira

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Re: Exploding battery?

PostFri Mar 21, 2014 7:37 pm

I've gotta think that's something they'll cover, provided your camera is within warranty. Let us know.
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Dustin Boswell

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Re: Exploding battery?

PostSat Mar 22, 2014 3:54 am

and now that I think of it, a good lesson as to why you should always keep a charged ABC Fire Extinguisher on set! :X
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Lee Jackson

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Re: Exploding battery?

PostSun Mar 23, 2014 12:39 am

That's why you should never lick a BMCC or BMPC. You never know when it may flame up on you!
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Frank Glencairn

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Re: Exploding battery?

PostSun Mar 23, 2014 6:41 pm

for the record:

Although in the video Gibson blames the battery, further investigation over the past week has led them to discount that theory. The manufacturer of the battery told Planet 5D that they had spoken with Gibson and found the battery was working fine, and Gibson himself admits it was cool to the touch when he removed it.


...and as I said, if a LiPo goes up in flames, it doubles it's size, the camera would have been a total burned out wreck.
If the battery would have burned, it would not still "work fine" after the fire.
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adamroberts

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Re: Exploding battery?

PostSun Mar 23, 2014 6:48 pm

You also can't remove the battery. So he must have been referring to and external battery but non are visible in the video. All seems to contradict itself.
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Frank Glencairn

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Re: Exploding battery?

PostSun Mar 23, 2014 6:51 pm

Yeah, the whole thing is a bit strange - to say the least.
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Theodore Prentice

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Re: Exploding battery?

PostSun Mar 23, 2014 7:18 pm

what is the point in cherry picking and editing out bits and pieces from what was reported on Planet5d?

The WHOLE article (for the record):


http://blog.planet5d.com/2014/03/hot-ba ... ing-shoot/
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Frank Glencairn

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Re: Exploding battery?

PostSun Mar 23, 2014 8:50 pm

Just saw it.

Why didn't he say it was an External Switronix battery in the first place,
but stated in his Youtube video "The Blackmagic camera's battery exploded" instead?


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Patrick Finnegan

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Re: Exploding battery?

PostSun Mar 23, 2014 9:21 pm

From what I can gather, he had an external Switronix battery plugged into the Black Magic, but it was the internal battery that melted. He says he removed the external battery and it was "cool to the touch". Potentially, something in the charging circuit shorted causing the positive and negative circuits of the internal battery to fuse. That would certainly melt a battery.

On my BMPCC I have to start my camera up on the internal battery before I plug in an external source or it will not start up indicating to me that the over voltage protection may be calibrated on the ultra sensitive side. If the switronix battery were freshly charged and at peak voltage over current protection might have failed.

just some possible thoughts...
either way I would not worry about it as anything but an relatively isolated incident given the number of cameras out there with no issue.
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Mac Jaeger

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Re: Exploding battery?

PostMon Mar 24, 2014 6:20 pm

Sometimes a little drop of condensation is enough to cause this kind of trouble...

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